The Great American Read

[mae]

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/trade-shows-events/article/74375-pbs-to-unveil-america-s-favorite-books-in-new-tv-series.html



The Great American Read, an ambitious eight-episode documentary series that PBS has just announced, will explore the place of reading in American culture. The show, which is set to start airing in the summer of 2018, will kickoff with a two-hour program that will reveal a list of America’s 100 best-loved books.

The inaugural episode of the series, set for May 2018, will feature the list of 100 best-loved books, chosen by the public and by a panel of literary experts. The final program in the fall will unveil a Top Ten list of America's best-loved books, culminating in the first-ever nation-wide vote to reveal America's single best-loved book of all.

Funded by the Public Broadcasting System and produced by the TV production house, Nutopia, The Great American Read will marshal the entire PBS network in a multiplatform campaign. The TV series will be supported by social media campaigns and community reading groups, in addition to testimonials and appearances by figures from the worlds of entertainment, sports, news and literature.

Voting by the public on the list of best-loved books will take place throughout the summer of 2018. The show will air thematic episodes ranging from “Being American,” and “Heroes,” to “Growing Up.” It will also feature interviews with celebrities and ordinary Americans about their passion for books and the role of reading in their lives.

Nutopia CEO Jane Root said she brought the idea for the Great American Read to PBS chief programming executive Beth Hoppe, after working on a similar and successful program for the BBC in the U.K. “It ended up really increasing book sales for the summer it ran," Root said, who credited Hoppe with keeping the project alive at PBS.

The initial list of 100 Best Loved Books, according to Bob Kirsh, executive producer of The Great American Read, were chosen through a demographically representative survey of ordinary Americans conducted via YouGov, a polling organization. Based on the question “What is your best-loved novel?,” the YouGov survey produced a list of 1,200 titles.

Working with the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management and with PBS, Nutopia has recruited a volunteer panel of “respected industry professionals including heads of not-for-profit literary organizations, educators, a librarian and members of the literary press," Kirsh said. The literary panel, Kirsh continued, will review the final list of 100 books to ensure it is representative of the full range of American literature. The panel of literary experts will be revealed at the time of the broadcast.

“It is important to reiterate that every title on our top 100 list was indeed initially chosen by the American public,” Kirsh said. "That’s what makes this national campaign exciting—there will truly be something for everyone.”

Some King stuff should be on there, I would imagine.

[Heather19]

I hope so! Nevertheless, this sounds pretty interesting.

[DoctorZaius]

The process seems bogus. 1,200 titles chose my fans, of which a panel of "experts" takes over and culls it down to 100 - there will be a classics bent for sure.

[Tommy]

What books would be on your list? :orely:
What books do you think will make this list? :orely:

[mae]

https://www.aberdeennews.com/entertainment/pbs-series-will-crown-top-u-s-novel-or-series/article_b8bcbfcb-701c-59bc-9547-d41c518ce258.html

Earlier this year, Public Broadcasting Service issued a list of the top 100 fiction books and series that have shaped American reading.

Starting Tuesday night, host Meredith Vieira will be counting down all 100 before revealing America’s favorite book in an eight-part series called “The Great American Read” on PBS.

Also starting Tuesday: a chance for the public to vote to decide the top book. Polls will be open on the program’s website and on social media channels.

Not all of the books were written by American authors or even take place in part in the U.S. To qualify, a book just had to be translated into English.

All 100 books are available at K.O. Lee Aberdeen Public Library, said Cara Romeo, assistant director. There’s at least one hard copy of each book, and more popular books might be available as CD audiobooks, downloadable audiobooks and e-books.

When the list was released, Romeo said library staff combed it and ordered any that were missing from the collection.

The 100 books were selected by publishing industry professionals. Authors can only have one book or series on the list to increase diversity, according to information on the PBS website.

The grand finale revealing the No. 1 book will air in October.

The 100 contenders

• “1984” by George Orwell.

• “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole.

• “A Prayer For Owen Meany” by John Irving.

• “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles.

• “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith.

• “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain.

• “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.

• “Alex Cross Mysteries” (series) by James Patterson.

• “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.

• “Americanah Chimamanda” by Ngozi Adichie.

• “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie.

• “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

• “Another Country” by James Baldwin.

• “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.

• “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.

• “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya.

• “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak.

• “The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz.

• “The Call Of The Wild” by Jack London.

• “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller.

• “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger.

• “Charlotte’s Web” by E. B. White.

• “The Chronicles of Narnia” (series) by C.S. Lewis.

• “Clan of the Cave Bear” by Jean M. Auel.

• “Coldest Winter Ever” by Sister Souljah.

• “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker.

• “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas.

• “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

• “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon.

• “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown.

• “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes.

• “Dona Barbara” by Romulo Gallegos.

• “Dune” by Frank Herbert.

• “Fifty Shades Of Grey” (series) by E. L. James.

• “Flowers In The Attic” by V.C. Andrews.

• “Foundation” (series) by Isaac Asimov.

• “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley.

• “Game of Thrones” (series) by George R. R. Martin.

• “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds.

• “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson.

• “The Giver” by Lois Lowry.

• “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo.

• “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn.

• “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell.

• “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck.

• “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.

• “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

• “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift.

• “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.

• “Harry Potter” (series) by J.K. Rowling.

• “Hatchet” (series) by Gary Paulsen.

• “Heart Of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad.

• “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett.

• “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.

• “The Hunger Games” (series) by Suzanne Collins.

• “The Hunt For Red October” by Tom Clancy.

• “The Intuitionist” by Colson Whitehead.

• “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison.

• “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë.

• “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan.

• “Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton.

• “Left Behind” (series) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

• “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

• “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott.

• “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry.

• “Looking for Alaska” by John Green.

• “The Lord of the Rings” (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien.

• “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold.

• “The Martian” by Andy Weir.

• “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden.

• “Mind Invaders” by Dave Hunt.

• “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville.

• “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks.

• “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

• “Outlander” (series) by Diana Gabaldon.

• “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton.

• “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.

• “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan.

• “The Pillars of The Earth” by Ken Follett.

• “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen.

• “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline.

• “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier.

• “The Shack” by William P. Young.

• “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse.

• “The Sirens of Titan” by Kurt Vonnegut.

• “The Stand” by Stephen King.

• “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway.

• “Swan Song” by Robert R. McCammon.

• “Tales of The City” (series) by Armistead Maupin.

• “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston.

• “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe.

• “This Present Darkness” by Frank. E. Peretti.

• “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

• “The Twilight Saga” (series) by Stephenie Meyer.

• “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.

• “Watchers” by Dean Koontz.

• “The Wheel of Time” (series) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

• “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls.

• “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith.

• “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë.

How many have you read? Visit pbs.org/the-great-american-read/quiz/ to find out.

[mae]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRCF_qIPvnM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKPMAYU1Q4

[Jon]

50 shades of grey and the twilight series. LOL in the top 100 of all time?? The left behind series?

[Tommy]

50 shades of grey and the twilight series. LOL in the top 100 of all time?? The left behind series?

Maybe for the wives and daughters of NASCAR drivers? :evil:

[mae]

It's not technically anything like a critical Top 100. They're positioning it more like 100 of America's most favorite novels.

[RUBE]

50 shades of grey and the twilight series. LOL in the top 100 of all time?? The left behind series?

I watched this and they said the vote is going to be for America's most beloved book. It is basically a popularity contest so I expect Harry Potter or something like it to win.

The real reason they are doing this is to try to get more people to read. They had a lot of celebrities and authors talking up their favorites to try to get people to read them. Obviously no one has enough time to read everything that they haven't before fall so they can properly vote especially with whole series listed. However if they can get a good number of people picking up a few books to read over the summer then they have succeeded.

[Tommy]

I watched and really enjoyed it. It did make me want to read several of the titles on the list that I have not gotten to yet.

I would vote for...

Crime and Punishment
Moby-Dick
The Great Gatsby
Catch-22
1984
Heart of Darkness
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Beloved
Gone Girl
The Sun Also Rises
To Kill A Mockingbird
Wuthering Heights
Heart of Darkness
Harry Potter
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
The Cather in the Rye
The Call of the Wild
The Stand

I'm debating Ready Player one. I've only gotten to Book three of The Fire and Ice series which, isn't even completed yet so it's weird to vote for that IMO. I wish they had included The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn instead of Tom Sawyer. I also wish my favorite book, Lolita, had been included but it is still probably way too controversial for something like this.

Since the results are in the Fall, hopefully I can get a chance to read several that I haven't yet.


One last gripe. I get that some of my favorite writers are not as widely read these days, but I really wish some

Faulkner
Joyce
Oates
McCarthy
Pynchon
Roth
Rice

had been included as well.

[mae]

Did y'all watch the first episode? Sorry, I forgot to bump the thread but my DVR remembered. Here's a trailer for the next episode:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1MZXe5BDm8

[Tommy]

The Stand came in #24

It was cool seeing Mccammon, Tan and other authors presenting. A fun show and interesting results.

[mae]

Here's the full list:

https://ew.com/books/2018/10/23/to-kill-a-mockingbird-great-american-read/




To Kill a Mockingbird
Outlander (Series)
Harry Potter (Series)
Pride and Prejudice
Lord of the Rings
Gone with the Wind
Charlotte’s Web
Little Women
Chronicles of Narnia
Jane Eyre
Anne of Green Gables
Grapes of Wrath
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Book Thief
Great Gatsby
The Help
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1984
And Then There Were None
Atlas Shrugged
Wuthering Heights
Lonesome Dove
Pillars of the Earth
Stand
Rebecca
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Color Purple
Alice in Wonderland
Great Expectations
Catcher in the Rye
Where the Red Fern Grows
Outsiders
The Da Vinci Code
The Handmaid’s Tale
Dune
The Little Prince
Call of the Wild
The Clan of the Cave Bear
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy
The Hunger Games
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Joy Luck Club
Frankenstein
The Giver
Memoirs of a Geisha
Moby Dick
Catch 22
Game of Thrones (series)
Foundation (series)
War and Peace
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Jurassic Park
The Godfather
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Notebook
The Shack
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Hunt for Red October
Beloved
The Martian
The Wheel of Time (series)
Siddhartha
Crime and Punishment
The Sun Also Rises
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
A Separate Peace
Don Quixote
The Lovely Bones
The Alchemist
Hatchet (series)
Invisible Man
The Twilight Saga (series)
Tales of the City (series)
Gulliver’s Travels
Ready Player One
Left Behind (series)
Gone Girl
Watchers
The Pilgrim’s Progress
Alex Cross Mysteries (series)
Things Fall Apart
Heart of Darkness
Gilead
Flowers in the Attic
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Sirens of Titan
This Present Darkness
Americanah
Another Country
Bless Me, Ultima
Looking for Alaska
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Swan Song
Mind Invaders
White Teeth
Ghost
The Coldest Winter Ever
The Intuitionist
Doña Bárbára

[mae]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4G8VjFp1hQ